A to Z list of what we cannot simply blame on apartheid, what we would not have expected of a government that claims to be committed to social justice, to fundamental human rights, to eliminating poverty and to correcting the inequities of the apartheid past.

A to Z list of what we cannot simply blame on apartheid, what we would not have expected of a government that claims to be committed to social justice, to fundamental human rights, to eliminating poverty and to correcting the inequities of the apartheid past.

Skin-lightening/bleaching is a problem, but it’s only a sign of much deeper inter-related issues: self-hatred, a race-based identity crisis, and the internalisation of Western-created cultural ideas that are inimical to the mental health of black people.

African recording artists have as much right as anyone to borrow influences from anywhere in the world, but when we celebrate those who have succumbed to the Coca-colonisation of African culture, what are we celebrating?

If you’re one of Nollywood’s millions of fans around the world, you can’t fail to have read one of the sensational headlines in the blogosphere and Nigerian media earlier this year: “Nollywood now producing blue films”, “From Nollywood to Pornllywood”.

Do you recall watching a movie with your parents, talking and laughing, when suddenly a sex scene comes on which seems to drag on forever? That awkward silence as everyone tries to find the remote control, ashamed to be in the presence of such a scene.

Contrary to the common complaint, there are lots of eligible and available men in Africa for today’s young, modern, educated African women. So why can’t some young women find their match? There’s something else going on.